D&D 5E Rewarding Bad Ideas (Mechanically)

[Lanefan]

The other ideas are interesting, but I definitely disagree with using xp in the way @Lanefan suggests. Making the game permanently suck for one or more players because of their playstyle is just the wrong way to go.

The goal is to encourage risk-taking and discourage resting, right?

For some this might require a change of playstyle. I see nothing wrong with incenting that change via the game's built-in reward system; and if it ends up making some timid players less timid, that's benefits all round.

I quite like Lingering Injury, and Inspiration or other bonus for fun or heroic moves are quite good. They reward the risk-taker and role-player, without punishing the timid player.

Er...I'm not quite sure how a Lingering Injury qualifies as a reward. To me that's the very opposite of what's intended in that it's the risk-taker who gets hosed; and getting hosed is a surefire way of discouraging risk-taking rather than promoting it.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

In my experience timid people penalised for being timid tend to leave. As for Lingering Injury, I think it leans into the same logic that has made Afterpay and credit cards so popular.

 

[GMMichael]

This should get you some mechanics.

I'm with @Peter BOSCO'S , Inspiration is a decent bribe that's already included in the rules. I wouldn't add more mechanisms to reward behavior for metagaming.

 

[CubicsRube]

I would second inspiration as a use for PCs getting into trouble for a good purpose. Fate as mentioned works well and it's a simple question of the DM asking what aspect (bond flaw etc) you are using. Allow them to rewrite these per session if they want so they can fit it to the campaign as it evolves. Once players see a mechanical benefit to these they'll use it more.

On the subject of a momentum die, i would think you could use 13th ages escalation die as inspiration for how you might use it. We've used this in 5e and it works well. In this case I might say after every fight or dangerous encounter, the die goes up 1 value (0 to 1, 2, etc). You add this to all attack rolls, saving throws, ability and skill checks. Once you rest, the number resets to 0.

This offers an incentive to continue as players now have a risk and reward choice to make.

 

[tommybahama]

We tried lingering injuries in the last campaign I played in (LMoP). Our dwarven cleric got his foot hacked off. It really sucked to have a 10 foot move speed. He had to use a magical staff from one of the BBEG we killed as a crutch for the rest of the adventure. The DM said he might use lingering injuries again (he seemed to have more fun with it than the players) but remove the possibility of limb loss as it is impossible to recover from at low levels.

In most action adventure movies the protagonists can be run through a meat grinder and appear fully recovered in the next scene. It never detracted from the movie experience for me so the full health after a long rest in D&D doesn't bother me either.

 

[BookTenTiger]

We tried lingering injuries in the last campaign I played in (LMoP). Our dwarven cleric got his foot hacked off. It really sucked to have a 10 foot move speed. He had to use a magical staff from one of the BBEG we killed as a crutch for the rest of the adventure. The DM said he might use lingering injuries again (he seemed to have more fun with it than the players) but remove the possibility of limb loss as it is impossible to recover from at low levels.

In most action adventure movies the protagonists can be run through a meat grinder and appear fully recovered in the next scene. It never detracted from the movie experience for me so the full health after a long rest in D&D doesn't bother me either.

How were Lingering Injuries handled? Were they in or out of control of the players?

 

[Umbran]

Rewarding Not Resting

...

I like the idea of something like momentum dice. After each conflict, each character gets a d4 they can roll to add onto an Ability Check, Saving Throw, Attack Roll, or Armor Class. They must roll all their Momentum Dice at once. When a character takes a Short Rest or Long Rest, they lose all Momentum Dice.

The problem is that this is likely all-or-nothing for the entire group. And there's a huge difference between asking the fighter to not regain hit points right now, vs asking the Warlock to go into the next encounter with only their cantrips on board. The fighter might trade a few hit points for a d4 bonus, but trading two 5th level spell slots for a couple d4 on one check is a fool's choice.

You might need to find a mechanic that has similar cost/benefit for everyone to make this viable.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

If I did use Lingering Injuries, I'd let the player choose the injury. An eyepatch or a hook hand might be cool, if the player so chooses. And there should be a way to buy it off, or get it removed with higher level magic. Lingering Injury is also a great excuse to use the wheelchair options we've been given.

 

[jmartkdr2]

If I did use Lingering Injuries, I'd let the player choose the injury. An eyepatch or a hook hand might be cool, if the player so chooses. And there should be a way to buy it off, or get it removed with higher level magic. Lingering Injury is also a great excuse to use the wheelchair options we've been given.

There's a spell for that: regenerate. It's 7th level, though, so no guaranteed access until level 13 at the earliest. (Although there's no component cost so a friendly high-level cleric should be willing to cast it for you if you can get to them.)

 

[tommybahama]

How were Lingering Injuries handled? Were they in or out of control of the players?

I think the DM had a table from the DMG. Whenever a player took a critical hit from an enemy then he'd have to roll a d20 and the DM would give the results. Low numbers were bad. Maybe if you could add your constitution save modifier to the d20 roll then it wouldn't be so bad. Martials wouldn't lose an eye, hand, or foot which would make them useless. The glee that the DM had when he got to use that table was a bit disturbing, to be honest.